Langar and the Simple Life

[Written on 24 July 2009]

We continued driving through the Wakhan Valley past the most stunning landscapes of cliff faces and the rivers which act as the border line between Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

Today, we stopped off at some ancient, abandoned forts which were built decades ago to protect the Wakhan Valley from potential attacks. In reality, the border is now riddled with check points every few kilometers. It was quite a hassle having to have our passports checked and registered at each checkpoint but our driver, Omarbek would simply collect our passports and take it into the registration office, leaving us in his Russian jeep. It did occur to be that it was odd that at most checkpoints, no border guard came to have a look at us to ensure it was actually our passport that they were registering. In hindsight, I now suspect that our driver's cost already included bribe money needed to get us through each checkpoint. This makes me angry as I experienced for the first time the injustices and abuse of power perpetuated by a corrupt government against its own people. I have never felt so passionately about this before till now. More on this issue in a later post.

We also stopped off at Bibi Fatima's Hot Springs. It was a queer operation where men and women enter separate bathhouses. In the bathhouses, you strip down and enter the hot springs through a cave hole. This hole leads you to the hot springs under calcite formations. I was not able to bathe as it was that time of the month for me but was persuaded by a local girl who was an English student in Dushanbe to just have a look which probably made the other women in the springs a tad uncomfortable, being in the nude with a fully clothed foreigner peering in on them! Kenneth came back from his bath blown away by the cultural experience. He commented that descending the steps of the cave hole in his birthday suit while a dozen generously endowed and circumcised Tajik men watched was one of the most intimidating experiences he has ever had!

I ended up purchasing a Pamiri style necklace made by a girl working at the hot springs. Being poor at Maths and having not acclimatised in currency conversion since my dealings with the Kazakh tenge and Kyrgz som, I paid 20 Tajik somani for the necklace thinking I got a good bargain for a necklace under AUD$1.00 only to later realise I'd actually paid AUD$7.00 for it. Still, I like the necklace and I liked the girl who made and was selling it so hopefully a little encouragement of her talent will go a long way though the concept of paying 'foreigner's price' for an item does annoy me at times. It must be my Australian egalitarian upbringing which stirs this emotion.

To give you an idea of the price discrepancies between foreigners and locals, the foreigner's fee for the hot springs was 10 somani (AUD$3.30) while locals pay a mere 2 somani (AUD$0.60).

After 6 hours on the road, we arrived at Langar village which is the most picturesque village I have ever come across, scattered across the descending slope of a fertile valley rich in wheat, rice and vegetable crops. The village faces the mountains of Afghanistan and gentle streams run through the village providing natural irrigation for the crops. We took a 1.5 hour walk around the area before dinner, led by 2 cute little village girls we chanced upon. They were keen to show us where we could enjoy the best views of their village. Like gazelles, the skipped over streams and brooks and ran up hills effortlessly while we plodded along behind them. We homestayed with a family in Langar for US$15 each, including dinner on the first night and breakfast the next morning. The homestay was a typical Pamiri house where an empty carpeted room (with various carpets also strewn across the room as wall hangings) is converted into a bedroom by laying out thin mattresses on the floor. It was comfortable aside from the fact that the pit toilet was a 2 minute walk away and there was nowhere to bathe. I suspect the villagers just bathe in the river.